Search - Klaus Schulze :: Dome Event

Klaus Schulze Live at the Cologne Cathedral, 1991.

Louie Bourland | Garden Grove CA | 04/07/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

""The Dome Event" was the third disc in a live trilogy released by Klaus Schulze in 1992 (the other two consisted of the complete Royal Festival Hall performance with bonus studio tracks).

This CD captures an historic live event from May of 1991 in which Klaus performed an outstanding 63 minute piece in front of an audience of over 10,000 people outside of Germany's huge cathedral in Cologne. Other artists on the bill included Schulze's former bandmates Ash Ra Tempel (now known as Ashra).

At the time of this performance, Klaus was at his peak during what is now known as his "sample period" in which he would create intense sound collages using a multitude of sampled sounds. Sampling definitely does play a large role in all of the music heard on this CD.

The long "Dome Event" piece opens in a very subdued fashion and consists of many sampled sounds including backwards African chants and a voice that keep repeating the phrase "You mean that's it". A slow-paced percussion rhythm takes over along with some delicate acoustic guitar samples. The music continues in this same fashion until right around the 30-minute mark when the rhythm is interupted by some hard orchestral hits and a sampled voice repeating "Wait, wait a minute. You don't want my brain". It is a rather humourous moment in what is otherwise a serious piece of music.

This sets the building up for the piece's finale which is extremely upbeat and reminiscent of Klaus's classic 70s sequencer style. At first the music is highly orchestral with similarities to Klaus's studio album "Beyond Recall". Then it shifts into a driving rhythmic sequencer pattern in which Klaus eventually goes wild with a distorted Minimoog synth solo. Definitely a stunning finale to a grandious piece of music.

In addition to the complete "Dome Event" piece, the CD is filled out with a 10-minute studio track entitled "After Eleven" which is a bouncy upbeat minimalist piece dominated mostly by piano sounds and choral backgrounds.

For those who are accustomed to Klaus Schulze's classic 70s style, it may be easy to be turned off by the harsh experimentation heard on "The Dome Event". However, this CD is not at all bad and it's quite fascinating to hear the way Klaus develops and unfolds his ideas before a live audience. "The Dome Event" has been out-of-print for quite sometime but hopefully with the recent CD reissues of Klaus Schulze's back catalog coming our way, it will be soon be back for another round."